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15.0 INTRODUCTION
Liquids have to be moved from one location to another and one level to another in domestic,
agricultural and industrial spheres. The liquid is more often water in the domestic and
agriculture spheres. In industries chemicals, petroleum products and in some cases slurries
have to be moved, by pumping. Three types of pumps are in use.
(1) Rotodynamic pumps which move the fluid by dynamic action of imparting
momentum to the fluid using mechanical energy. (2) Reciprocating pumps which first trap
the liquid in a cylinder by suction and then push the liquid against pressure. (3) Rotary positive
displacement pumps which also trap the liquid in a volume and push the same out against
pressure.
Reciprocating pumps are limited by the low speed of operation required and small
volumes it can handle.
Rotary positive displacement pumps are limited by lower pressures of operation
and small volumes these can handle. Gear, vane and lobe pumps are of these type.
Rotodynamic pumps i.e. centrifugal and axial flow pumps can be operated at high speeds
often directly coupled to electric motors. These can handle from small volumes to very large
volumes. These pumps can handle corrosive and viscous, fluids and even slurries. The
overall efficiency is high in the case of these pumps. Hence these are found to be the most
popular pumps in use. Rotodynamic pumps can be of radial flow, mixed flow and axial
flow types according to the flow direction. Radial flow or purely centrifugal pumps generally
handle lower volumes at higher pressures. Mixed flow pumps handle comparatively larger
volumes at medium range of pressures. Axial flow pumps can handle very large
volumes, but the pressure against which these pumps operate is limited. The overall efficiency
of the three types are nearly the same.
15.1 CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS
These are so called because energy is imparted to the fluid by centrifugal action of moving
blades from the inner radius to the outer radius. The main components of centrifugal pumps
are (1) the impeller, (2) the casing and (3) the drive shaft with gland and packing.

Rotodynamic Pumps
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Additionally suction pipe with one way valve (foot valve) and delivery pipe with delivery
valve completes the system.
The liquid enters the eye of the impeller axially due to the suction created by the impeller
motion. The impeller blades guide the fluid and impart momentum to the fluid, which increases
the total head (or pressure) of the fluid, causing the fluid to flow out. The fluid comes out at a
high velocity which is not directly usable. The casing can be of simple volute type or a diffuser
can be used as desired. The volute is a spiral casing of gradually increasing cross section. A
part of the kinetic energy in the fluid is converted to pressure in the casing.
Figure 15.1.1 shows a sectional view of the centrifugal pump.
Figure 15.1.1 Volute type centrifugal pump.
Gland and packing or so called
stuffing box is used to reduce leakage along
the drive shaft. By the use of the volute only
a small fraction of the kinetic head can be
recovered as useful static head. A diffuser
can diffuse the flow more efficiently and
recover kinetic head as useful static head. A
view of such arrangement is shown in figure
15.1.2. Diffuser pump are also called as
turbine pumps as these resembles Francis
turbine with flow direction reversed.
Stationary
vanes
Figure 15.1.2 Diffuser pump.
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15.1.1 Impeller
The impeller consists of a disc with blades mounted perpendicularly on its surface. The
blades may of three different orientations. These are (i) Radial, (ii) Backward curved, and
(iii) Forward curved. Backward and forward refers to the direction of motion of the disc
periphery. Of these the most popular one is the backward curved type, due to its desirable
characteristics, which reference to the static head developed and power variation with flow
rate. This will be discussed in detail later in this chapter.
A simple disc with blades mounted perpendicularly on it is called open impeller. If
another disc is used to cover the blades, this type is called shrouded impeller. This is more
popular with water pumps. Open impellers are well adopted for use with dirty or water
containing solids. The third type is just the blades spreading out from the shaft. These
are used to pump slurries. Impellers may be of cast iron or bronzes or steel or special alloys as
required by the application. In order to maintain constant radial velocity, the width of the
impeller will be wider at entrance and narrower at the exit. This may be also noted from figure
15.1.1.
The blades are generally cast integral with the disc. Recently even plastic material is
used for the impeller. To start delivery of the fluid the casing and impeller should be
filled with the fluid without any air pockets. This is called priming. If air is present
the there will be only compression and no delivery of fluid. In order to release any air entrained
an air valve is generally provided The one way foot value keeps the suction line and the
pump casing filled with water.
15.1.2 Classification
As already mentioned, centrifugal pumps may be classified in several ways. On the
basis of speed as low speed, medium speed and high speed pumps. On the basis of direction
of flow of fluid, the classification is radial flow, mixed flow and radial flow. On the basis
of head pumps may be classified as low head (10 m and below), medium head (10-50 m) and
high head pumps. Single entry type and double entry type is another classification. Double
entry pumps have blades on both sides of the impeller disc. This leads to reduction in axial
thrust and increase in flow for the same speed and diameter. Figure 15.1.3 illustrates the
same. When the head required is high and which cannot be developed by a single impeller,
multi staging is used. In deep well submersible pumps the diameter is limited by the diameter
of the bore well casing. In this case multi stage pump becomes a must. In multi stage pumps
several impellers are mounted on the same shaft and the outlet flow of one impeller is led to
the inlet of the next impeller and so on. The total head developed equals the sum of heads
developed by all the stages.
Inlet
Axis Axis
Inlet
Inlet
Impeller
Casing
(a) (b)
Figure 15.1.3 Single and double entry pumps